There is no indication that this front page (front and center, btw) on-line story in this morning’s on-line NCR is a retrospect. At first I thought they meant that Pope Leo was planning a new Holy Year, which I think is going to be 2033 for the death and resurrection of Our Lord and that the NCR just got the year wrong.
But in fact, it is a story they printed in 2021!!!! And it isn’t presented as a retrospect at all!
The NCR and other heterodox Catholics really are trying to relive the past, the past 13 years and are stuck there! Oh my!
Here are screen shots of the story:
6 comments:
Our resident papalator is in “good” company!
I appreciate the recognition and praise which with National Catholic Reporter has showered Pope Leo XIV throughout his Pontificate.
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https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/pope-leo-xiv-ncrs-newsmaker-year-2025
December 15, 2025
-- Pope Leo XIV: NCR's Newsmaker of the Year, 2025
In a divided world, he's a needed North Star of moral clarity
Excerpts:
"This year, that clarity clearly points to Pope Leo XIV, named the Newsmaker of the Year for 2025 by the National Catholic Reporter.
"His early actions as pope are not just administrative moves; they are moral guiding posts in a world yearning for direction.
"...he offers something rare: a pastor-leader urging the church to reclaim the dignity of every person — not as an abstract idea, but as the core of its public witness."
"By honoring him now, we recognize both the hope he has ignited and the tough questions he refuses to avoid.
"And yet we can confidently state that Pope Leo XIV's first seven months have already transformed the global Catholic conversation and signaled a different kind of leadership — humble, dialogical, grounded and unwavering in conscience.
"In a divided world, he has become a necessary North Star.
"From his first public words — "Peace be with you!" — he emphasized his core mission: reconciliation, not rivalry.
"In the sphere of migration — where global cruelty has become normalized — Leo has given equally urgent witness.
"Moral clarity for the poor...This is moral clarity on the environment — not in slogans, but in action...Moral clarity on migrants and the displaced..."
"He has made synodality not a process but an attitude: Synodality is not a program or a campaign, he said, "but the Christ-like willingness to understand and accompany."
"In that one line, he redefined the church's self-understanding — not as a fortress but as a pilgrim community, porous, listening, open to conversion.
"He has appointed women to senior curial roles, supported widening pastoral space for LGBTQ Catholics..."
"In many ways, Leo stands in continuity with Francis: the poor remain central, dialogue remains essential, and creation remains sacred. Yet his tone is distinct: less polarizing, less rhetorical, less defensive, more open."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
National Catholic Reporter
December 15, 2025
-- How we chose Pope Leo XIV as this year's Newsmaker
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"As 2025 started winding down, the editorial staff at National Catholic Reporter did what several publications do at year's end: consider who they think is the Newsmaker of the Year.
Since most of us work remotely, we put our heads together, almost literally, on one of our regular Zoom meetings to discuss our options.
Some of us came to this session with one seemingly obvious candidate in mind but when we opened the floor for discussion, it turned out that some had differing views and also suggested we shouldn't just go for the low-hanging fruit, as one reporter described it.
So yes, Pope Leo XIV was an obvious candidate. But just because he made news as the new pope (and the first from the United States!), that didn't automatically move him into the top Newsmaker slot for this crowd.
In fact, someone mentioned that NCR didn't choose Pope Francis for this title back in 2013 because the editorial staff then basically felt he needed more time on the job to prove his track record.
Our editorial in 2014, when Pope Francis did get this publication's Person of the Year as it was then called, pointed out that although many embraced the new pope's message and apparent change in tone and direction, not everyone was fully convinced at the time about him:
"The refrain was, 'Yes, but what has he done? To what real change can we point?' And so NCR resisted naming Francis our person of the year for 2013."
Instead, that year, NCR chose Jennifer Haselberger, a church whistleblower on clergy sexual abuse. Haselberger, a canon lawyer and former chancellor of canonical affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, disclosed previously unreported allegations of clergy sex abuse and lapses in investigations in the Minnesota archdiocese she found while reviewing its records and archives.
NCR has also not always given this yearly title to people who have done great work in the church but to those who have been significant newsmakers, for good or not.
For example in 2018, the year news broke about allegations of sexual abuse against former cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, our publication named him Catholic Newsmaker of the Year.
Our editorial then on McCarrick, who died in 2025, said: "His fall from grace, deeply disturbing in its details, would have warranted special notice if only because he was the first U.S. cardinal so disciplined.
But his story takes on a greater significance because it unmasks, in ways that previous cases of episcopal malfeasance have not, the secrecy, deceit and corruption of the clerical system.
It illustrates the inability of two previous papacies to deal seriously with bishops and archbishops who were abusive themselves or complicit in covering up abuse by others."
In that same vein — looking at Catholics for what they reveal to the country, for good and ill in their public presence — the editorial staff this year also considered Catholic public officials such as Vice President JD Vance and White House border czar Tom Homan. But just briefly.
Stephen Colbert, who is Catholic and host of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on CBS, was also considered, particularly for this year's announcement that his show would be cancelled next year.
Many have speculated that it had to do with Colbert's criticism of President Donald Trump and a recent Paramount-Skydance merger tied with government conditions.
So yes, these Catholics were in the news this year, but so too was our new pope from Chicago. Ultimately we determined that he had demonstrated, already, how he indeed is a vital voice of leadership in this current, challenging time.
As our editorial points out: Leo's "papacy is still evolving" but his example already makes him a sign "that the Gospel's moral clarity can still cut through the noise of a troubled world."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Probably just reminiscing
If the NCR like Pope Leo that’s good because they usually hate orthodoxy!
Man, between TJM and RCG's comments there was a lot of cut and paste drivel to pass over!
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